Yum Saap (ยำแซ่บ) is a chain of Thai restaurants to be found all over Bangkok and in several provinces. Yum Saap (pronounced more like yum-sâep) sells spicy Thai salads including yum and som-tam. The food is delicious, but be warned the food can be almost dangerously spicy and they rarely take any notice if you ask them to tone it down.
To control those spicy flavours, make sure you have plenty of water and plain steamed rice on hand.
Yum Saap also sells main dishes but most people go there to buy several plates of food and share. Our only complaint about the restaurant is the tiny portions of rice. You’ll almost certainly need more than one plate of rice to go with the sauces.
We particularly enjoy som-tam talay (seafood) and som-tam pol-a-mai ruam (mixed fruit). Som-tam bpoo grob (crispy whole crabs) is another dish that we would recommend. There’s not a lot of protein in most dishes and nearly everything contains added sugar, but there is grilled chicken on the menu. Som-tam kaeb moo (crispy pork skin) is fantastic just so long as you are not on a diet. Perhaps that would make it extra fantastic! In any case, it also reminds us that Thailand is probably not a good place to live if you want to avoid pork and meat generally.
Expect to pay about 250 baht up for two people including water. More people means better value and a greater choice of dishes.